First published in 1978, Misty was the brainchild of legendary writer and editor Pat Mills, offering thrills and chills for a generation of young women in the UK and featuring stories from creators including Shirley Bellwood, Jesus Redondo, Jordi Badía Romero, and Mills. Running for over 100 issues in total, each issue was hosted by Misty, who acted as a guiding voice for her young readers – and in this new anthology we’ll be telling stories featuring Misty herself for the first time!
This anthology features three brand-new chilling stories written by Simone, with art by Carola Borelli (The Deadliest Bouquet, Spider-Woman), Aly Fell (A Trick of the Light) and Marianna Ignazzi (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), alongside a fourth story written and drawn by rising star Letty Wilson (Owl People). Completing this spectacularly spooky package is a cover from Eisner-winning artist Tula Lotay (Barnstormers)!
I first encountered Misty after it had ceased publication, this was back in the early 1980’s and my family was visiting some family friends (a friend of my mother’s from her school days). I ended up perusing their bookshelf and discovered a pile of comics belonging to their daughters. It was largely back issues of Bunty, but nestled amongst them, like a spider just waiting to pounce were a couple of back issues of Misty.
This comic was special, even though I had only read a few of the issues memories of how I felt when reading them settled into the back of my brain and made a dark, cobwebby nest where they live to this day. I have tracked my love of mystery and the macabre to several formative experiences of my youth, one of the major ones being discovering that amazing comic.
My love for Misty was resurrected back in 2019 when I picked up a copy of Gothic for Girls: Misty and British Comics by Julia Round. Published by the University Press of Mississippi it delved into the history of girls comics in general and specifically the dark gem that was Misty. This review is not about that scholarly tome although if you can get your hands on a copy it is well worth a read.
I have said it in another review and will reiterate it here, 2000AD has hitting it out of the park lately when it comes to getting top flight talent writing for them. This trend continues with Gail Simone writing three of the stories for the Misty special. I have loved Gail’s work for years – from her Red Sonja stories to Batgirl, Secret Six and Deadpool, her horror comic Clean Room and a ton of other titles I cannot recall off the top of my head. There is also her god-tier trolling on social media – microwaving tea being something that got me before I realized who it was.
Gail is at the top of her game, and has been for a long time now, her work on this special is is no exception. Three gripping tales narrated by Misty, our guide into this land of horror. From her encounter with a true crime podcaster, through a stint in a grimy pub to a secluded nursing home where the death rate is just a tad too high… Each story is gripping and unnerving and completely different to the others. For my money it was the fourth tale, The Cracked Glass by Letty Wilson that left me with the greatest sense of disquiet. It may be because I have two young daughters but I had a sense of unease that I can still feel as I am writing this sentence.
If you need something to cool off during the long hot days of summer then pick up the Misty 2024 Special – it will send an ice-cold chill down your spine!
Misty is published by 2000AD and will be available from July 17 in the UK and August 21 in the US.
Nu Earth: a whole planet sacrificed to war. A chemical and nuclear nightmare, fit only for the endless battle between Nort and Souther forces – and for the Rogue Trooper, sole survivor of the Genetic Infantry, hunting the traitor who sold out his regiment. Together with the bio-chipped “ghosts” of his dead comrades, Rogue walks the wasted lands in search of their killer, determined to see justice done.
But a war world on the edge of an unstable black hole holds terrors beyond the bounds of sanity, and now the last GI finds himself wrenched away from his bloody quest. Hurled across reality to another world – another war – Rogue is marooned in an ancient conflict no less terrible than his own. With no way home and unknown dangers at every turn, the lone warrior must do what he was bred to do: and fight like hell for his very survival.
I had no idea that my favourite comic of 2024 would be the latest edition of the long-running future war serial Rogue Trooper but there you go! I mean I have been a fan of Garth Ennis’ work for decades now, in fact it was in 2000 AD that I first encountered his writing – Judge Dredd: Emerald Isle if memory serves. I will not deny that as much as I love his work, sometimes his writing sometimes veers a bit to closely to edgelord territory, but without fail his war stories are written with a depth of knowledge, love and respect that is impossible to ignore.
When I first picked up Blighty Valley I was expecting Rogue to go to town on scores of Norts with a lot of wise-cracking back and forth between him and his biochipped comrades and “Stak! Genetik Infantryman! Naaaaain!” and to be fair there was some of that but what I did not expect was a powerful antiwar story that ranged from the toxic atmosphere of far future Nu Earth to the Great War that heralded the beginning of mechanized slaughter that wars have since become. It is a beautiful, heart-breakingly brutal story of lost soldiers trying to find their way home through impossible odds, stunningly illustrated in black and white by Patrick Goddard.
This is science fiction war (& history) with soul and stands up to multiple rereads and gave me a deeper appreciation of the Genetic Infantryman and his comrades. I have been seriously impressed with 2000AD’s output lately – look I am a long-time fan but the past few years have been truly amazing, and as I said, this story is my top one for 2024 and I highly recommend it to all readers!
Rogue Trooper: Blight Valley by Garth Ennis and Patrick Goddard is published by 2000 AD and will be available from all good comic and bookstores from July 2nd.
Blighty Valley was the name given by the Army to the lower part of the deep valley running down South-Westward through Authuile Wood to join the river between Authuile and Aveluy; a railway was carried along it soon after July, 1916, and it was for some time an important (though inevitably a dangerous) route. The upper part of the valley was called Nab Valley. Blighty Valley Cemetery is almost at the mouth of the valley, a little way up its northern bank.
Imogen Quinn is a chaotic bisexual with dreams of becoming a stand-up comedian, crushing stereotypes about autistic people. When she decides to put on a pride festival that’s accessible for everyone, she enlists the help of the openly gay captain of the football team, Ollie Armstrong.
Dealing with the fallout from his parents’ divorce, Ollie is initially hesitant. But it doesn’t take long for him to be swept up by Imogen’s passion, and he’s not the only one. Joined by the (infuriatingly perfect) head girl, musicians, an artist and a star baker – a dream team soon assembles to help plan pride and tackle injustices in their school and beyond. You’d better listen out – they’re getting ready to make some noise.
Packed full of fun, forever friendships and fighting back, this YA debut is perfect for fans of I Kissed Shara Wheeler, Gwen and Art are Not in Love, Feel Good, Heartstopper and Not My Problem.
SOMETHING TO BE PROUD OF is Anna Zoe Quirke‘s debut novel and published TODAY! I really loved this book, it ticks most of my boxes: realistic teens, humour, friendship, angst (but not too much), romance (but not too much), positive disability rep, unashamedly LGBTQIA+ characters, present but imperfect families…and, a personal highlight: a non-US based author as I am often annoyed by the number of American titles published and highlighted in the UK when there is so much home-grown (or anywhere-else-on-the-globe-grown) talent we could be supporting. I got the chance to ask a few questions!
The book is own-voices but is it autobiographical at all?
Not really. Imogen is an own-voices character as I’m also a queer autistic person, but I definitely wasn’t brave enough in high school to get up to half the shenanigans that they do! (Although there was a photoshopping incident with my headteacher but that was less an act of protest and more a ‘teenager being a little sh*t’ thing.)
I’ve always thought that I would have been more like Imogen had I known I was autistic and been able to unmask earlier. There are hints at what Imogen used to be like before they fully came into their own and felt comfortable in their identity and those experiences and feelings were definitely inspired by how I felt when I was younger.
If anything, Ollie’s story is the more autobiographical one for me. Nothing was taken directly from my life because, you know, boundaries, but my parents also got divorced when I was in high school, and I’ve had to navigate tricky dynamics with loved ones like he does. Plus, his journey with figuring out what his gender means to him was really special for me to write, as I’ve had to do a lot of figuring out what I wanted my gender to mean to me too.
Was the dual narrative there from the very first draft?
It was. I’m a very character-focused writer so when I’m coming up with a book idea I always know who the characters are first before I know exactly what the plot will be, and Something to be Proud Of was no exception. Both Imogen and Ollie burst into my head and demanded that I write about them, so yes, it was always going to be a dual narrative story – I always knew they both had really important things to say and I felt like they deserved to say them in their own voice. Plus – in my very unbiased opinion – I feel like it’s really lovely that we get to see what their friendship means to them from both their perspectives as it’s developing.
Which character was your favourite to write?
I loved writing all of the characters, but I think I do have to go with Imogen. Writing Imogen’s character was the most fun I’ve had writing ever. They’re funny, silly, unashamedly passionate and I’ll always have fond memories of sitting at my desk cackling out loud to myself and making my dog think I’d lost my marbles while I was writing certain chapters of Imogen’s. However, that being said, all of my absolute favourite moments to write were the ones that were between Imogen and Ollie. Their friendship was an utter joy to write and I’m so grateful that I had them to keep me company during the COVID lockdowns!
What advice would you give to a teen if you’ve inspired them to get involved in setting up an inclusive Pride event in their area?
I love this question and I really do encourage everyone to try and make all their Pride events as inclusive as they can! Here are some thoughts/questions you might want to consider:
– Think about the specific community you want to do your event in – do you know of any particular needs there that you can take into consideration?
– What’s been lacking from other pride events you’ve been to? Were they accessible for wheelchairs/people with other mobility aids? Did they cater to different sensory needs?
– Don’t be afraid to do some research – no one’s expecting you to know absolutely everything straight away, in fact, it’s really important to recognise that you don’t know things. If you think you know everything then you’re closing off the possibility to continue learning. (Also, just as a reminder, when you’re doing research, reading the thoughts and opinions of the groups of people you’re trying to involve in your event is always best, rather than people without that lived experience.)
– Imagine an environment where you are entirely comfortable, calm, and feel celebrated for who you are. What does that space look like? How can you take even just small steps towards creating that space?
– If you can, try and gather an amazing team around you. Chances are you’re not the only person that cares about making things more inclusive and besides, everything’s easier with a great team around you so that you can support each other, brainstorm ideas, commiserate when things don’t go to plan and celebrate together when they do.
– A last reminder: the fact that you’re trying is such a wonderful starting place. You have that softness and that ‘I just want everyone to feel safe’ part inside you, and that’s a really beautiful thing. Be gentle with yourself, and if you feel like you didn’t do something right or forgot something you feel like you should have included, then give yourself grace and just make a note to do that next time. There’s so much pressure to be the ‘perfect’ activist and it’s often really counterproductive. If people worry too much about being perfect, then they might become so anxious that they can’t do anything at all. But doing something is always better than nothing.
What are you reading at the moment and who would you recommend it to?
I’m currently rereading Jane Austen’s Emma. I’d recommend any of Jane’s work (Persuasion is my favourite!) to pretty much anyone. Jane’s stories are so warm, her characters feel so real, and she writes with such wit – she’s a huge writing inspiration of mine.
And then I’m also rereading the Northern Lights trilogy with the students in the ‘Book to Screen Club’ that I run in my library (alongside watching the BBC adaptation) and we’re having an excellent time with it. If you like magic, adventure and high stakes, whether you’re a teen or adult, I definitely recommend those books.
I’ve also just been sent an ARC of Not for the Faint of Heart by my friend, Lex Croucher, which is a historical queer romance/adventure inspired by the story of Robin Hood. Lex’s books are always super fun, laugh-out-loud reads, so I’m very excited to dig into this one.
Will we see more of Imogen or are you working on something different?
Both Imogen and Ollie will always occupy a big chunk of my brain. I have dozens of little snippets of scenes written in my phone notes because I’m always thinking about them and what might have happened in their lives after we leave them at the end of STBPO. Unfortunately though, sequels are pretty rare, so I doubt I’ll ever fully return to the world of STBPO in that way.
But, I am currently working on edits for another book that’s coming out in 2025. It’s a queer rom-com this time, with similar found family vibes and hijinks to STBPO but alongside themes of mental health and figuring out (or not) the nuances of your sexuality. I feel like I’ve properly fallen in love with this book during the editing process and I can’t wait for people to read it next year!
Anna Zoe Quirke is a queer and autistic author and librarian from the North of England. She currently lives in Manchester with her partner, Rachael, and their very angry tortoise, Sheldon. They’re at their happiest writing stories about queer and neurodivergent people finding and claiming their place in the world, exploring the literary wonders of the UK, or making a big ol’ mess in the kitchen baking things for their loved ones.
For as long as anyone can remember, Wychdusk Manor has been the school to which all the top magical novices are sent, where they are trained to become the world’s greatest wizards. Androgeus Frost, part of one of the wizarding worlds’ most esteemed families, always thought it was a sure thing he’d get in, but somehow finds himself dumped at Lowborn High.
Lowborn High is one of the best stories to come out of 2000AD Regened – special issues with stories suitable for all ages that are published a handful of times a year.
If you are not an aficionado of The Galaxy’s Greatest Comic and would like a frame of reference think crumbling, inner city Hogwarts.
Writer David Barnett has taken a handful of well-worn magical world and high school tropes, mixed them together and buffed them up considerably to craft a story that is engaging, entertaining and worth several rereads! An over-subscribed, struggling school school with a motley collection of students who are often at odds with the staff, throw in mysterious back stories and machinations from the hidden world of magic mixed in with a fish out of water experience and the healing power of friendship and you have only barely begun to scratch the surface. Anna Morzova and Mike Walters are the artists who bring David’s words to life. Their art styles complement each other and are perfect for this brand of storytelling.
If you have been searching for an ongoing story of magic, mystery and friendship with a diverse cast of characters and a more believable location that a hidden castle in the Highlands, with a lot less real world creator controversy then Lowborn High may be just the graphic novel for you! Plus once you have read it you can discover all the amazing work that has come out of 2000AD over the years!
I have read Lowborn High several times now – in the original progs and have read my review copy three times since receiving it. I have also put a request in for my library to purchase copies so that I can recommend it to some of my favourite patrons who may otherwise never know of its existence! Seriously library folk, this is a graphic novel that will do well in your collections! Trust me – I am a Librarian!
Find out more about the creators and their other works here:
Lowborn High, by David Barnett, Anna Morzova & Mike Walters is aimed squarely at teen readers but is suitable for most ages. It is published by 2000AD and is available now! More details on where to find it can be found here.
Wednesday is a sleuthing, supernaturally infused mystery charting Wednesday Addams’ years as a student at Nevermore Academy. Wednesday’s attempts to master her emerging psychic ability, thwart a monstrous killing spree that has terrorized the local town, and solve the supernatural mystery that embroiled her parents 25 years ago — all while navigating her new and very tangled relationships at Nevermore.
If I am completely honest Christina Ricci was always “my” Wednesday Addams. The Addams Family & Addams Family Values were my introduction to Charles Addams’ mysterious and spooky family and the movies still stand up, Anjelica Huston was a perfect Morticia and Raúl Julia was born to play Gomez.
But I digress! this is a review of Wednesday, Jenna Ortega brings a smoldering intensity to the role and exudes danger and vulnerability going from being a piranha in a tank of goldfish to being a monster in a pool of other monsters. This show was and is a delight to watch and rewatch! I cannot wait until my daughter is old enough to watch it with me, she is a self-described spooky kid but knows when to say no to scary things she is not quite ready for.
Wednesday is a wonderful monster, murder mystery that will keep the viewer guessing throughout. It is also a coming of age story as well as a celebration of friendship and surviving high school. The supporting cast is also marvelous, from Luis Guzmán and Catherine Zeta Jones playing Gomez and Morticia respectively to wannabe best friend Enid Sinclair played by Emma Myers to potential love interests Tyler Gilpin and Percy Hynes White. Christina Ricci also makes an appearance as a normal, but mysterious human teacher at Nevermore Academy.
Tim Burton directed the first four episodes of Wednesday and served as executive producer for the series which bears his trademark gothic touches throughout. It seems bizarre that this is his first tangle with the Addams Family, but I can honestly say that it was worth the wait!
Wednesday was released on Bluray and DVD on March 26th by and is available from wherever fantastic film and television can be found.
It should also be available from your local library, but if it is not you are always able to ask that it be purchased!
Before he was Craig of the Creek, he was just Craig – a new kid in a new town. All Craig wants is to go back to his old friends at his old home. But when he learns that the nearby creek is hiding a lost treasure that could make his wish come true, Craig sets off on a journey to find it – navigating the perilous suburban wilderness, forging new friendships, all while being pursued by a fearsome band of pirates who are bent on destroying the Creek itself.
Craig of the Creek is one of my family’s favorite animated series, my eight-year old and I always watch it when we find it while flipping through the channels in our TV downtime. The show is a paean to friendship, adventure and the thrill of a childhood spent outdoors that we wish would never end.
Having watched the series from end to end several times I was delighted to hear that Craig Before the Creek is finally being released in a physical medium on March 26, 2024. Suitable for the whole family it is a wonderful beginning to a story that is loved by millions (including my little gingersnap and me). I highly recommend it – buy your own copy, stream it on HBO or request it from your local library – they are sure to have multiple copies and if not you can request that they do!
When she enters her country’s most beloved baking competition, Shauna Wickle’s goal is to delight the judges, charm the nation, and make a few friends along the way. But when a fellow contestant is poisoned, it falls to her to apprehend the culprit while avoiding premature elimination from the UK Bakery Tent…and being the poisoner’s next victim!
When an uptight and unpopular contestant in the UK Bakery Tent ends up in intensive care can amateur baker (& sleuth) Shauna Wickle unmask the culprit and prevent rising temperatures in the tent from causing the entire show to melt down.
Gently poking fun at one of Britain’s remaining cultural institutions and those that participate in it, The Great British Bump Off is a joy to read again and again. Fans of Agatha Christie will notice nods to the Queen of Crime’s novels and lovers of The Great British Bake Off will recognize the tropes and types that have become synonymous with the show.
Will Shauna and her friends be safe from elimination long enough to unmask the culprit, are the contestants safe or will the poisoner strike again before filming wraps on the latest season of UK Bakery Tent?
Written by John Allison and illustrated by Max Sarin, better known for their collaboration on the award winning series Giant Days, their latest series, is a gingham-wrapped murder mystery set under the canvas of Britain’s favourite baking show.
Trapped in a mansion with a murderer and a family of liars – how would you survive? A mind-blowing thriller from the author of THIS BOOK KILLS, perfect for fans of Holly Jackson and Karen McManus.
When three girls are stranded at the grand Bramble Estate in the middle of a snowstorm, they stumble into a murder plot. Someone has poisoned wealthy Emily Vanforte in the middle of a family dinner – which means Devi, Lizzie and Jayne are trapped in the house with a killer and a mystery to solve. With knives under floorboards, vanishing guns and secret passages in the walls, no one is safe and everyone is a suspect. But in a house of liars and corruption, will the girls save themselves…or learn to fit in?
Ravena Guron’s debut YA, THIS BOOK KILLS, was a brilliantly fun murder mystery set in a school with lots of twisty turns and only a slight suspension of disbelief needed to carry you along to the big reveal and I’d highly recommend it…CATCH YOUR DEATH however, is a million times better than TBK and I implore you to read it immediately!
I don’t want to say a lot about the plot because I don’t want to spoil it for you, which means this is a very short review, but the 3 perspectives are brilliantly rounded characters with distinctive voices (really hard to do) and I honestly gasped aloud at a couple of points, as well as laughing because there is a great use of humour. Definitely add this to your Christmas wishlist as, although it isn’t even remotely festive, it is a perfect read for a cold day.
Ravena Guron
Huge thanks to Usborne for sending me a review copy.
‘A little babushka is made when you’re young and something happens to you that leaves a scar…’
Cerys Williams has swapped her village in the Welsh Valleys for art college in London and the spare room in glamorous Auntie Wyn’s flat. Cerys knows there’s more out there for her in the world; it’s the year 2000 – she definitely doesn’t have to just get married and have babies and wear beige and cook stews for the rest of her life, even if Mam thinks she should.
But Cerys’s London is not glossy or cool or sophisticated, despite what Adept, her favourite magazine, has told her. It’s lonely and overwhelming and confusing. Until, that is, she meets him…
The prequel to Toxic. A coming-of-age novel about love – the love you think you know and the love you never realised you had, all along.
I’m reading BABUSHKA at the moment and am feeling very emotional about the concept of us having babushkas inside us like nesting dolls, reacting to events of today in your subconscious in different ways because of personal experiences and traumas. I was also a 90s teen (went to uni in 2000) so a lot of it is very familiar, I’d love to hear what modern teens make of it. Natasha Devon is a proving to be a great writer of thoughtful and thought provoking YA. Another brilliant YA author, Kate Weston (you must read MURDER ON A SCHOOL NIGHT, it is a hilarious and gripping and maddening all at once thriller), did a Q&A with her for a Waterstones event and I’m very happy to be able to share that with your here:
What was the inspiration behind Babushka?
Babushka is the prequel to my previous novel Toxic. My protagonist Cerys is the mother of Llewella, who is the protagonist in Toxic. At some point it occurred to me that Cerys and I would have been teenagers at the same time – the turn of the century. I wanted to write what about life was like for young women at the millennium, when we’d lived through the kind of inch-deep, Spice Girls inspired feminism of the 90s but were still contending with things like lads’ mags and celebrity magazines which put big red rings around women’s ‘flaws’. I wanted to make the point that some of the things Cerys grapples with – like consent, victim blaming and misogyny weren’t invented by social media. Sure, these problems have shapeshifted for the modern era but they were just as prevalent in the lives of women throughout the ages.
Where did the title come from?
Right at the beginning of the novel, someone says to Cerys that we all have previous versions of ourselves that live inside us, like Russian dolls. In Russia, these are called matryoshka dolls but elsewhere in the world people call them Babushka dolls. I went with Babushka as the title because it’s also the name of a track by Kate Bush, and what with ‘Toxic’ being a Britney track, I thought it would be fun if both my novels had titles which were songs by iconic women.
When during the process of writing and planning Toxic or after that, did you realise that you wanted to write about Loo’s mum’s story?
When people first read Toxic, some said they were surprised by how ‘hands off’ Cerys apparently was as a parent. It’s obvious Cerys really cares about her daughter, but she doesn’t try to micromanage her life in the way that another mother might. I wanted to explore why Cerys became that way and in my head it was all to do with how her mother was (the polar opposite – always interfering and nagging, or at least that’s how Cerys sees it). That’s how the idea for Babushka originally took root.
What’s your process when you’re writing? Do you plot or do you let your characters grow as you go?
Babushka was a very different writing process from Toxic. With Toxic, even though it’s also a character-driven novel, I already had a really strong idea of how the plot was going to play out. With Babushka, I had fleshed Cerys out almost entirely in my head before I even put pen to paper (or finger to keypad, technically), so the story really evolved through the prism of her. It’s fitting, really, because at one point Cerys tells another character that she’s never felt that she didn’t know who she was, just that she was in the wrong place.
You absolutely nailed the vibe or the women’s magazine in 2000 – especially with things like the circle of shame around someone’s cellulite – do you think that culture is in anyway improved? Or has it just moved on to a different format?
Misogyny shapeshifts as patriarchy uses the considerable resources at its disposal to protect itself. Some of the things that used to happen in media at the millennium would be considered unacceptable now, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t found a different way to do the same thing (straightforward fat-or-skinny shaming has now become ‘concern for health’ for example. Pointing out someone’s flaws just for the hell of it has become ‘aren’t they brave for going out like that?’).
What I do think is great is how much more of a breadth of content young women have to choose from, now. There are truly revolutionary content creators, TV series and magazine-style articles that you can get at the click of a button. There also isn’t the sense of ‘everyone’ watching the same thing and therefore absorbing the same beauty paradigms and life advice that we had with, say, Friends or Sex & The City.
There’s a conversation around page 40 between Wyn and Cerys where they discuss whether you would want to be remembered as you are or with certain perceived imperfections changed or “improvements” made. I liked how the conversation focused on “the real you” but avoided mentioning anything about a person’s personality, focusing solely on looks. I imagine this was on purpose because this was very much how things were perceived back then but do you think in 2023 that we’ve moved on from that? Or do you think looks still form the basis of how we’re remembered as a person.
That conversation is based on a thought I have all the time – Does a painting or a sculpture capture the essence of a person better – because artists can draw out certain otherwise intangible qualities – or is a photograph more accurate? And is even a photograph a ‘real’ representation of you when it can’t show how you move, what you sound like or how you smell?
I think in 2023 we’re all David Bowie (bear with me on this one). He talked about how there was a version of him he had curated and sent out into the world and that was what his fans were responding to, not the real him. So there’s a lack of actual connection, there. I think in the age of social media we all do that. We create an avatar of who we wished we were and send it out into the internet to interact with other people on our behalf. And that’s part of the reason there’s been an epidemic of loneliness because in order to truly connect with someone they need to see the whole you, perceived ‘imperfections’ and all.
How do you think the beauty industry has changed since 2001 and what impact do you think that’s having on young people?
Again, the answer is different depending on what end of the telescope you are looking at. On the one hand, we’re seeing more diversity in media and advertising and a greater breadth to the understanding of what it means to be beautiful than ever before and that’s to be celebrated. On the other, the beauty industry has continued to create areas of the face and body for women to feel apologetic about. When I was young the message was ‘be as thin as possible’, which was problematic for a number of reasons and left many people in my generation with eating disorders and other enduring issues. But now there are all these obscure beauty trends dictating exactly what shape and size every single millimetre of your body should be.
We’re also seeing the resurgence of hellish fashion trends we endured in the early 2000s like low rise jeans (just no), so-called ‘heroin chic’ and really thin eyebrows. Although not strictly relevant I do just want to mention to any young person reading this that is thinking of overplucking their eyebrows that, unless you are in the small percentage of people who are genetically blessed, THEY DO NOT GROW BACK.
Do you think that things can get better in terms of the way that the media and society views women and the things that are expected? Or do you think the list of things that we’re disapproved of for will just get longer?
You have to believe it can get better or you’ll just go and live in a hole in the mud somewhere and cry.
I have noticed two things about the women in their early twenties I work with at LBC that are very different from my generation. 1. They’re not afraid to take up space. Nothing about their body language suggests they are trying to make themselves smaller. And 2. They’re so supportive of one another. When I was in my twenties the message to women was ‘there’s a limited slice of the pie for you so every other woman who might have her eye on it is a threat’. A lot of us ended up very ‘pick me’ as a result (and I include myself in this – I’m a Pick Me Girl in recovery). Young women now seem to be all about celebrating each other and raising each other up, which is wonderful.
I want to talk about Darsh a bit without any spoilers. It feels like it would have been really easy to make him into a complete bastard but there’s far more subtle things that he does that are in the guise of protecting her or ‘loving’ her. How did you come up with his character?
I’ve learned through experience that the people who are going to treat us badly in life don’t announce themselves with a giant neon sign saying ‘HEY! I’M REALLY TOXIC AND I’M GOING TO MAKE YOUR LIFE UNBEARABLE!’. If they did it would be really easy to avoid them. The red flags are much subtler, in reality, and therefore easy to miss or overlook. It also had to be believable that someone as clever and independent minded as Cerys would fall for Darsh. Like most f**kboys, Darsh is really charming, exciting, handsome and a little bit mysterious.
I also learned writing Toxic (which is also features a dysfunctional relationship, albeit a platonic one) that creating a good story means it would make sense if told from the perspective of any of the characters. People aren’t generally badly behaved or mean for no reason – There’s always a journey that’s brought them to that point.
What’s next? Are you working on anything you can share with us at the moment?
I’m in the very early ideas stages for another novel but I have no idea if it’ll ever see the light of shelves at this moment. In the meantime, I’m doing my ‘day’ job of visiting three schools a week delivering talks and conducting research on mental health, writing my columns for Teach Secondary and doing my weekly radio show on LBC.
Natasha Devon (photo credit: Jonathan Donovan)Kate Weston
Experience Skulduggery Pleasant as never before – in this fully original graphic novel brought vibrantly to life in full colour.
A small town in the middle of Ireland, a string of unexplained deaths and a monster on the loose. Better call in the experts.
When Skulduggery Pleasant and Valkyrie Cain drive into Termoncara, they discover a town with a dark past and a people haunted by their own secrets. There is a creature stalking the streets – a creature who delights in cruelty, who feeds off the little hatreds, who grows stronger with every drop of blood spilled.
Horror and mystery collide in an original graphic novel by Derek Landy, P. J. Holden, Matt Soffe, Rob Jones and Pye Parr.
What I love most about the Skulduggery Pleasant books is the humour. Without it the darkness would be overwhelming, but it also doesn’t undermine the intensity of some harrowing scenes! I wasn’t sure how much an illustrated fight scene (because, let’s face it, there are a lot of fight scenes) would keep that balance and worried the violence might become the most important part of the story…but it still works! Derek Landy’s script was limned by P.J. Holden, coloured by Matt Soffe and lettered by Rob Jones (I must give thanks to the excellent Comics Review blog post about it for this detail).
Be warned though, it is pitched older than the first novels, there is a 15+ rating on the back cover.
You can read a sample on the Skulduggery Pleasant website to get a taste for it. I’m pleased it wasn’t an adaptation but a whole new story, quite an unexpected but very current storyline about intolerance & guilt that is pretty hard going but very satisfying!
I was given a copy by Harper Collins to review but also knew that I’d have a few students desperate to read it so ordered it for school…my biggest Skulduggery fans absolutely loved it. They inhaled the book and want to see more of Jamie. One said it was too short but another said that they really liked how fast paced it was and found it even more un-put-down-able than the original novels. They then had the disappointment of realising that it is the only one (so far) and they couldn’t move straight onto the next book like they had with the series! The other brilliant thing about it though is that it has tempted some students that have been put off reading the novels because they get quite long, it can definitely live as a ‘stand-alone’ with no prior knowledge necessary.
